Lord of the Flies : Aaron's Story
by PikaKhrysta
Summary: Aaron is the character I made up for an English assignment. Aaron is actually a girl, on an island full of boys. She has to learn how to survive with them, and they all have to learn how to survive with the beastie.
1. Landing on the Island

June 7, 1954

10:45 A.M.

Right before I got on this plane, my parents gave me this journal. It's a journal to make sure I make the trip to my aunt's memorable. I don't even get why their making me write in this. I guess I'll do it, just to humor them. But don't think this will become my last resort of fun.

Anyway, this flight is the cheapest, but it's all we can afford. It came with one stipulation, though. I have to be a boy. Too bad I was born a female. In order to get on the plane, I had to be dressed like a boy.

My older brother, Toby, had some pants that were much too small on him, but just right on me. My other brother, Timothy, had a shirt that was baggy enough on me to not show that I was a girl. I also had to cut my hair. Just short enough that it wasn't long, but it was short enough to be considered a boy hair. It wasn't enough to just change my appearance. My name also had to changed.

My name, on my birth certificate, is actually Aryanna. My family decided on the name Aaron. That's my name now. That's how everyone is going to know me. Not as Aryanna, the shy girl with the brown locks of silky hair that went halfway down her back. They'd know me as Aaron, the quiet boy who is content with keeping to himself. The boy that doesn't actually talk about anything, or do anything. The one who no one talks to.

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to slip this into my bag and try to take a nap before I get to the airport.

Sometime later

When I wake up, I am laying in the sand and the plane is in pieces. Have I just slept through a plane crash? The thought that scares me: Were there other survivors? If there are, would they know that I'm a girl?

I look down at my clothes. They're a little torn, but the boys shouldn't be able to tell. Standing up and wincing, I take look around. There's nothing around me but trees. But behind me is a lagoon and a beach. And then I hear the sound of a deep, harsh note that scared the local birds. I follow the sound to meet two boys on the beach, with others soon appearing, including a boys choir.

One is tall and athletic, with fair hair. His shirt is stuck to him with sweat, as is his hair. The other isn't as tall or athletic, by the looks of it. He has glasses, which keep sliding down to the end of his sweaty nose. It was clear that they had called the survivors.

The bigger one is asking what our names are. _Johnny. Sam. Eric. _Then it finally gets to me.

"What's your name?" the boy asks.

"Umm. . . Ary. . . Aaron." I almost blew my cover, and I'm on an island full of boys. This would not be as easy as I had been assured it would be.

"We'd all better have names, so I'm Ralph," said the athletic boy.

"We got most names. Got 'em just now."

"Kids' names. Why should I be Jack? I'm Merridew," said the choir leader.

The other one who had called them to the beach had been saying something, and a second later, Merridew told him to shut up and called him "Fatty." This Merridew kid is starting to make me mad, and I don't even know him.

"He's not Fatty, his real name is Piggy!" Ralph proclaimed, alerting everyone of Piggy's name.

All of the boys started laughing, and Piggy got very pink in the face. He stood outside of the circle of people, and cleaned his glasses, which still slide down his nose because it is slick with sweat.

After a little more laughter (from the boys, not me. I was sympathetic.), Jack spoke. "We need to decide on how to be rescued."

Ralph said something along the lines of, "We need a chief."

There was a quick vote on it, and Ralph was chosen to be leader, just because he looks the part and he has the shell which had summoned us. It is also decided that the choir boys are the hunters. Ralph had the idea that three people (Ralph, Merridew, and another choir boy named Simon) should go up the mountain and determine whether or not the landmass we are on is an island or not.

They come back, and they tell us that we are indeed on an island and there is a coral reef which enclosed one side of the island. As they were walking back, they said, there was a pig. Merridew had drawn his knife and hesitated before making a move to kill it. In which time, the animal had gotten away.

"Next time," he had said, "there would be no mercy."


	2. The first rumors

At the next meeting, we are discussing that there will be rules, such as, "If someone has the conch, they have the right to speak." Then a little boy spoke of a beastie. Piggy had to talk for him, since he was a little shy.

He says that the beastie lived in the woods, and it looked like a snake. Ralph put it off, saying, "You can't get beasties on islands this size. You only get them in big countries, like Africa and India."

The little boy goes on about the beastie, saying that it came in the dark. To this, Ralph said that he must've been dreaming about the creepers. He looks to the older boys for confirmation, but you can tell in the eyes of some of the little un's that they do not believe what Ralph is saying. But we all know about nightmares.

"He says he saw the beastie, the snake-thing, and will it come back tonight?" Piggy says, looking to Ralph for reassurance.

"There isn't a beastie!" Ralph tried to get everyone calmed down; they're starting to fidget.

"He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the tree, and hung in the branches. He says will it come back tonight?"

"But there isn't a beastie!" Ralph repeats, hoping repetition will knock this crazy idea out of the little un's heads.

This is when Merridew takes his chance to put in his comments.

"Ralph is right, of course. There isn't a snake thing. But if there is a snake, we'd hunt it and kill it. We're going to hunt pigs to get meat for everybody. And we'll look for the snake too— ."

"But there isn't a snake!"

"We'll make sure when we go hunting."

Ralph is starting to look annoyed now. And defeated. But soon after, he told us (again) that there wasn't a beastie and we shouldn't be afraid. Ralph then changes the topic, to our rescue.

We all start talking at once. The simple statement sent us into a frenzy. Without any back up. This is the first that Ralph has ever been in charge of something, but I think, since we've just been through something as dramatic as a plane crash, none of us are really thinking about background checks.

"My father is in the Navy. He said there aren't any unknown islands left. He says the Queen had a big room full of maps and all the islands in the world are drawn there. So the Queen's got a picture of our island." We are all wondering if this or true or not.

"And sooner or later, a ship will be put here. It might even be Daddy's ship. So you see," he said proudly, "sooner or later, we shall be rescued." The safety in his words left us stupefied. Then, after a few moments, we all broke into applause. Ralph flushed and Piggy looked to him, admiring his words. And Merridew… He was smirking and showing that he, too, knew how to clap. But Ralph still had the conch.

"There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island, they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire!"

"A fire!" all the boys started cheering, they were excited for the fire. Half of the boys are on their feet. Jack was among them, and the conch had been forgotten

Under the palm trees, it was full of noise. Ralph had stood up, not to head up the mountain, but to regain control. But none of the boys had heard him. The group was following Merridew. Ralph was left, holding the conch. No one was around but Piggy, Ralph, and I.

"Little kids. . . Acting like a group of little kids," Piggy said, under his breath. I agreed with him on that. Ralph looked at him doubtfully and laid down the conch on a tree trunk. Then Ralph took off running. Piggy and I looked after in in disgust. "Like a crowd of kids—" Piggy and I caught eyes, I nodded, then we followed.

On the other side of the island, there was a forest. Ralph made a gesture. "Down there we could get as much wood as we want."

The trees were dead, not being able to find enough soil to grow upon. The trees fell prematurely and decayed. They had left saplings, which would also start the struggle to grow.

The boys had gathers a lot of firewood, and put in into a pile. They had then used Piggy's glasses as a way to light the wood on fire. Once the pile was on fire, Ralph had gotten the boys to go get even more wood. They did, and they were all panting like tired dogs within a quarter of an hour.

There wasn't any smoke, only flame. This had gotten us a little sad. We came to the conclusion to let it burn out. Who could see smoke at night, anyway? Merridew and his hunters volunteered to watch the flame. But then, Piggy looked over his shoulder at the forest of dead wood below. It had caught on fire.

"You got your small fire all right."

But it wasn't a small fire. It was a big one. One that had caught all of our fire wood on fire. The flames crept along the forest as if they were some type of big cat that I had seen in the zoo. At this point, I would like to admit that I think that Piggy would be a much better leader than Ralph.

There was much arguing, Merridew called Piggy "Fatty" again. I am enraged, but I say nothing.

Piggy loses his temper. "I got the conch! Just you listen! The first thing we ought to have made was shelters done there by the beach. It wasn't half cold down there in the night. But the first time Ralph says 'fire' you go screaming and howling up this here mountain. Like a pack of kids!" He hesitates, then continues with, "How do you expect to rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper?"

Piggy makes a motion to put down the conch, but changes his mind. "And who knows how many little un's we got?"

Ralph broke in, "I told you to collect names."

Piggy retorts, "It's kind of hard when I'm all alone."

But he wasn't alone. The hunters were there and so was I. Then I took notice. We were missing a little un. The one with the birthmark on his face.

"Where's the little un with the mark on his face?" I say, startling everyone. It was the first time I had spoke since we landed on the island.

Piggy continues on my idea. "That little un, the one with the mark on his face— where is— he now? I tell you, I don't see him."

The boys look at each other, unbelieving that the little un is gone.

"— where is he now?" Piggy and I say together. We looks at each other and he smiled.

"Perhaps he went back down to the, the—"

Beneath them, on the unfriendly side of the mountain, the drumroll of fire continued.


	3. Our Secret Place

Merridew had gone off early this morning to go hunting. I hadn't woken up to wish him luck. I had fallen asleep late last night, I had been crying. Again. The littleun had more than likely perished in that darn fire. Why had Ralph had started the commotion? Piggy was right. We should've started with shelter first, and then settled with an idea of how to get rescued. Not get everyone obsessed with the idea of the fire. The fire was the cause of this.

No one else really cared about the littleun, but I do. I didn't even know his name, but he is causing me so much grief. I couldn't imagine what I'd feel if one of my few friends (Piggy, Simon, and Ralph) died, if I'm feeling this put out about a little boy I had no idea existed until the day the plane crashed.

I don't even know how long we've been on the island. It has been a while, from the looks of our hair, which has grown out quite a bit. The other boys still have no idea about my being a female. Which is all I've thought about. Would I be exiled if I did come out? I actually have to take baths in the dead of the night, so they can't see me. It's worrying, not knowing what will happen if they do find out. But I doubt Ralph will allow anything bad to happen. He is my friend after all.

Merridew comes back, struggling to kick the creepers off of his feet. I laugh because a couple little uns decided it would be funny to mimic him. He shoots us a glance, they stick their tongues out at him, and then Merridew goes off on his business. We start laughing.

He goes over and talks to Ralph. Poor Ralph, he has to put up with suck a poor sport who never has any fun. All Merridew does is hunt and sleep. There seems to be no time for fun. It must be a pretty boring existence.

While they talk, the children and I go back to playing. We were playing tag, which was fun, I guess. Suddenly, we hear Merridew yelling at Ralph. The littleuns and I stop and look over at the scene. From what I can tell, Ralph was talking about the shelters and Merridew was complaining. Probably about the fact that he came home empty handed again. It quiets down again, and so we go back to playing.

I keep looking over at the trio, Ralph, Merridew, and Simon, who had been there the whole time, just not making a sound. One time, I look and Simon is walking into the forest. I am pretty curious, so I follow him.

Simon walks through the scar of where the plane had touched the earth, through acres of fruit trees to where the littluns are picking fruit. He reaches up and hands them a few handfuls, then he goes on his way. He starts down a path that doesn't look very explored. I still follow him, wondering where he is leading me.

He came to a clearing. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. There were yellow flowers, a fallen tree, and creepers that intertwined themselves into some sort of shelter. Simon looks over his shoulder as I duck behind a tree. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want anyone knowing that this is here. He crawls into a hole in the mat made of creepers, and I walk silently behind him, just poking my head into the mat.

There were these little flowers that look like candles. The candle buds open their white flower, and the scent of the flower filled the night air. I pull my head out of the mat, and think of the best thing to do.

"Simon?" I say, reluctantly. There's a second of silence, then he climbs out of his secret cabin.

"Oh, it's you. You won't tell anyone about this place, will you?" he asks, pleading with his eyes.

"No, and I don't think I could even find it by myself."

He laughs, crawls back into the cabin. I stand there, awkwardly. Did he want me to follow?

"Coming?" I hear him call.

"Yeah!" I call back, and then climb through into the hidden cabin.


	4. The fire goes out, and Jimmy comes in

Today has been pretty lazy, we're all lounging around. There's a ship on the horizon and I look up at the mountain and see something strange.

"Hey, Piggy?"

"Hmm?"

"There isn't any smoke on the mountain."

He cleans his glasses and looks up at the mountain. "I can't see no smoke. I can't see no smoke, Ralph— where is it?"

Ralph looks up at the mountain, and he has to push his fair hair out of his face with both hands. There is very little smoke, but as Ralph puts it, "they'll see our smoke."  
Simon, Piggy, and I are still looking at the mountain. Ralph takes off towards the mountain. Fast. We all chase after him.

He stops, and uses precious air to swear and to say, "Piggy's specs! If the fire is all out, we'll need them—"

The fire is dead, we see that straight away, see what we knew down on the beach. The fire was dead, and there was no smoke. Ralph looks out to see and we follow his gaze. He ran to the end of the cliff, saving himself from falling into the pitiless waters that lie below, and he screamed. "Come back! Come back!" Simon has tears in his eyes, and, when Ralph looks at us, Simon turns his head away. We know he is crying.

"They left the fire, Ralph," I say, at last.

"They let the bloody fire go out."

We start heading down the mountain, and find a parade walking onto the beach. "There they are," Ralph says.

We continue down the mountain, and when we get to the beach, we get to see the whole procession. Merridew was leading, followed by Sam and Eric, who are carefully carrying a stake that had something on it. It smells of death.

All the hunters are excited. They had killed a pig. It had been gutted in the forest. The hunters are all rambling about their own stories. When they all quiet down, Ralph says one simple sentence: You let the fire go out.

"We can light the fire again. You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time. The twins got knocked over—" This sends the hunters into more incessant chattering.

Ralph does not move from his spot. "You let the fire go out."

"The fire's only been out for an hour or two. We can light it back up."

"There was a ship! There was a ship. Out there. You said you'd keep the fire going, but you let it out. They might have seen us. We might have been able to go home."

Piggy starts getting frustrated. I try to calm him down, but he cries shrilly, "You and your blood, Jack Merridew. You and your hunting. We could have gone home!"

"I was chief! You were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can't even build huts— then you go off hunting and let out the fire—"

One of the littler hunters starts to wail. I go up to his, and lead him away from the group. As we get farther away, we can still hear them, but he starts to calm down.

"What's your name?" I ask, looking into his blue eyes and hoping that it would get his mind off of the argument that was going on a little more than one hundred yards from us.

"Jimmy," he whimpers.

"Well, Jimmy, I think you and I should play a game together sometime. Would you like that?"

His eyes light up. Jimmy looks over at the rest of us. "Do you think they'll stop fighting soon? I don't like yelling. It hurts my ears."

"I'm sure they will, they're just going to settle their disagreement."

"Why are they even fighting? Jack did nothing wrong," he looks me in the eye, searching for an answer.

"Well, he told Ralph that he was going to do something, but completely forgot about it. We missed a ship. There was no way it could have seen us if the fire wasn't going."

"You're wrong!" he yells, standing up for Merridew. "You're wrong. Jack did something right. He went and got us food! Why doesn't Ralph understand that? Jack got us food, so what if we missed a boat."

"We've been gone a long time, Jimmy."

"Well, my parent's were on the plane with us. They died. I have nothing to go home to. I'll be sent to an orphanage."

"I won't allow that to happen. But hey," I say, bringing hope in my words, "if we get off of this island, you can come live with my family. I promise."

"You. . . promise?"

"Yes, I promise."

He smiles suddenly, and runs back to the group. In time to see Merridew punch Piggy in the stomach. "You would, wouldn't you? Fatty!"

Ralph takes a step forward and Merridew smacks Piggy, sending his glasses flying. It struck a rock, breaking one side. Simon helps Piggy find his glasses.

After a few minutes, Merridew looks over at Ralph and apologizes for letting the fire out. Jimmy looks over at me, confused. I know he thought that Merridew is a saint, and when Merridew apologized, it confused him.

At dinner, there was a demonstration on how the pig was captured. Once the commotion dies down, Ralph says calmly, "I'm calling a meeting." The hunters stopped moving.

"With the conch. I'm calling a meeting even if we have to go into the dark. Down on the platform. When I blow it. Now."


	5. A story gets told, and we get caught

Ralph does call a meeting, like he told us he would. But it was for business, not for fun. I am the first there, helping the children find a seat. Some are on the ground, but that's okay. The other's are on logs. I have a seat next to Jimmy, who is seated on a log, and saving me a seat.

Once we are all seated, he began. "The thing is, we need an assembly. Not for fun, not for laughing, not for falling off the log," he looks over at the littleuns on the logs that tips over, then continued, "not for making jokes or for cleverness. But to set some things straight." He pauses, hesitating. "I've been alone. By myself I went, thinking what's what. I know what we need. An assembly to put things straight. And first of all, I'm speaking."

The meeting goes on like this for a while. Ralph is telling us the things that we did not do but we said we would. Then the topic of the shelters was put into the mix. Everyone was angry. Ralph had said that no one had been helping.

"Wait a minute! I mean, who built all three? We all built the first one, four of us built the second, and Simon and I built the last one over there. No. Don't laugh. That shelter might fall down if the rain comes back. We'll need those shelters then."

The topic changes to the lavatory, and then to the fire. Piggy, Simon, and I caught eyes. We knew that this topic was going to come up.

"The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we get rescued except for by luck, if we don't keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?"

He rants a little more, and then says, "Now I say this and make it a rule, because I'm chief. We won't have a fire anywhere but on the mountain. Ever."

Hands were reaching for the conch at this time. Ralph doesn't give up the conch, even when Merridew stands up and tries to take it.

"I haven't finished yet."

"But you've talked and talked."

"I've got the conch."

Then Merridew sits back down.

"Then the last thing," starts Ralph. "This is what people can talk about." He looks out to us, searching for eyes, some of which are looking for places to be, places that aren't his eyes. "Things are breaking up. I don't understand why. We began well; we were happy. But then—"

He moves the conch from his left hand to his right, still looking out at us, remembering everything.

"Then people started getting frightened. But that's littleuns' talk. We'll get that straight. So the last part, the part we can talk about, is kind of deciding on the fear." Ralph sets the conch down, and Merridew takes his chance. He grabs the conch, and starts talking.

I found absolutely nothing he said to be nice, so I tried not to listen. Until he starts yelling at the littleuns about being scared. He rambles about how the reason we're fearing stuff is because of them, how it's their fault that we're all afraid. I stand up, saying that it's not their fault, but then I get told to sit down by his hunters because "Jack has the conch." Ralph looks at Merridew open-mouthed, and Merridew took no notice. Ralph interrupts him, and Jimmy looks at me and whispers, "I'm afraid of the beastie, but I'm trying to stay strong for the other boys. You won't let anything get me, will you?"

"No, I won't, Jimmy, I promise." I promise him another thing. He reaches over and holds my hand while Ralph and Merridew argue.

Then one of Jimmy's friends, Phil, starts to talk. Jimmy shushes me; he wants to hear what his friend is going to say.

"Last night, I had a dream, a horrid dream, fighting with things. I was outside the shelter by myself. Fighting with those things, those twisty things in the trees. Then I was frightened and woke up. And I was outside the shelter by myself in the dark and the twisty things had gone away. Then I was frightened and started to call out for Ralph and then I saw something moving among the trees, something big and horrid."

Ralph puts it off as sleeping walking and the assembly murmurs in agreement. But Phil sticks to his story.

"You were asleep. There wasn't anyone out there," Ralph rationalizes. "How could anyone be wandering around in the forest at night? Was anyone? Did anyone go out?"

There was a long pause, and I look at Simon. He nods and we both stand up.

"You! Why were you two murking about in the dark for?"

Simon grabbed the conch convulsively, and says, "We wanted— to go to— a place I know."

"What place?"

"Just a place I know. A place in the jungle."

It is our secret place. Our happy place. No one else knows about it, and we intend to keep it that way. I move to sit back down, but I notice Jimmy has slumped over, and that he is asleep. I ask Ralph, "Can I be excused to take him to the shelters?"

"Yes," was the reply and then he goes back to talking to the group. I pick up Jimmy and head over towards the shelters.

He moves a little, and I almost drop him. I regain my grip on his limp body just as he wakes up.

"Where are we going?" he asks, in a daze.

"We're going to the shelters. You fell asleep during the meeting."

"Oh." He makes a motion to be put down, so I set him down gently on his feet. He wobbles a second, but then stands up straight and starts walking towards the huts that lie empty on the beach.

"You can go back to the meeting, if you want," he looks up at me, his blue eyes pleading me to stay, despite what he is saying.

"Nah, I'd rather be here with you than at some stupid meeting. Plus, I promised you I'd protect you from the beastie, remember?"

"Yeah. . ." He smiles up at me.

So I climb into the shelter with him, and lay down, protecting him with my life. I stay awake until the other littleuns come back, then I go into my own shelter and fall asleep quickly.


	6. It's all our imagination

Ralph has problems falling asleep tonight, I can hear that from how to leaves are rustling over in his direction. After what seems like two hours, the rustling quiets down and his breathing slows. He's fallen asleep. Sam 'n Eric had come into our shelter, but they are supposed to be watching the fire on top of the mountain.

"Ralph! Wake up!"

Ralph grumbles, not wanting to acknowledge the fact that he's just fallen asleep.

"Ralph! Wake up!" the voice repeats.

"What's the matter?"

"We saw—"

"the beast—"

"— plain!"

"Who are you? The twins?"

The twins keep saying that they saw the beast, and then Ralph calls for Piggy, who jumps awake. Ralph looks cautiously out the door. He pulls his head back in tells Sam 'n Eric to call an assembly.

Taking off, the twins (Let's call them SamnEric, like they're one person.) run to the next shelter and tells the rest of the boys about the disaster. Simon, Piggy, Ralph and I climb our the oblong shaped door of our hut and I notice that Ralph's back much be hurting him by the way he is walking. He walks over to his seat in our meeting place, and picks up the conch.

Just as he puts it up to his mouth, he decides against using it and holds it up. Looking at Ralph holding the conch, we all know what he meant. He wanted to talk to us.

We gather around and he passes the conch to the closest twin, which is Eric. Eric looks at us, fear in his eyes, then he starts with his story.

"We've seen the beast with our own eyes. No— we weren't asleep— "

Sam takes over here, saying, "It was furry. There was something moving behind it's head— wings. The beast moved too."

I stop listening here, Jimmy grabs my hand and looks up at me. He's terrified. I catch Simon's eye, and beckon him over.

"Meet me at our secret place. Tell me what they say, I want to know, but I have to take Jimmy somewhere. He's getting scared." Simon and I both look down at Jimmy, and he's about to cry.

Jimmy and I walk away, and he calms down.

"If there's a beastie, why did Ralph lie about it not being real? He's chief."

"He doesn't want people to be afraid. If we don't believe there is a monster, then there isn't one. Have you ever said something so many times that you yourself began to believe it?"

"Yeah, but he shouldn't lie to us. He's chief, and we all look for help from him. Not lies."

"As I said, he doesn't want us getting scared."

"But I am scared," Jimmy says, and then he wraps his arms around me. He's petrified of something that more than likely isn't there.

"Jimmy, can I tell you my thoughts? I think that the beast isn't real. I think it's all our imagination."

"But what if it is real? What do we do then?"

"We stay away from it. But I really do think it's just our imagination."

He lets go of me, takes my hand, and we go sit down on the beach. He pushes sand onto me, and I get up and chase him. When I catch him, I take him to the water and throw him in far enough so he won't get hurt. We play tag until the meeting is over. Then little kids come running and he runs to meet them. I get up and meet Simon. We walk to our place in the middle of the woods, away from everything to do with the beastie.


	7. Mumbles of a Beastie

Ralph, Simon, Maurice, and Merridew are going to the rock at the end of the island. I'd be going with them, but both Jimmy and Piggy ask me to stay. So I do.

The littleuns and I have been playing games for a few hours when Simon comes back through the trees.

"Where's Piggy?" he asks when he gets over by me.

"Over in one of the shelters. Where are the others who went with you?" I respond, hoping that they aren't hurt.

"They'll be back after dark." Then he walks to Piggy, leaving me with the littleuns again.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jimmy looks to me.

"They're okay. I hope. And they'll be back tonight," I trail off, wondering if that's true. But, for Jimmy's sake, I don't announce my worries. He's already afraid of a beast that may or may not exist. We go back to playing, Simon joining us after he tells Piggy something.

Around dark, Ralph, Maurice, and Merridew come crashing through the trees, mumbling something about a beast on the peak of the mountain.


	8. The Lord of the Flies

I run up to Ralph and Piggy. "Are you sure? Really sure, I mean?" Piggy is saying.

"I told you a dozen times now," Ralph says, "we saw it."

"D'you think we're safe down here?"

"How should I know?" Ralph walks away, irritated by Piggy. Merridew sits in the sand, drawing.

Piggy and I look at each other. _What's his problem?_ I mouth to Piggy. He shrugs, and we both follow Ralph.

"What we going to do?" Piggy says as soon as we get to Ralph and Merridew.

Ralph looks towards the platform, towards the conch. He lifts his hair from his face.

"I don't know. I don't think we'd ever be able to fight a thing that size, honestly, you know. We'd talk, but we wouldn't fight a tiger. We'd hide. Even Jack 'ud hide."

Still looking at the sand, Merridew says, "What about my hunters?"

Simon takes off out of the shelters, into the trees. I look at each Piggy, Ralph, and Merridew. They're too engrossed in their conversation to notice if I leave.

I go, after Simon. After the only one who might make some sense of this beast situation.

I go to out secret place, knowing he's inside. I've made this trip so many times, I know the way by heart. I crawl into the mat, and look up. Simon is crying.

"All this talk of a beast, it's really starting to scare me. But I don't believe there is a beast."

"Nor do I, Simon. But you have to be strong. For the littleuns. For yourself. For me. For all of us."

"I just want to go home."

"So do I. If we do go home, will we still keep in contact?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't we?"

"I don't know, but if we do keep in touch, there's something you should know."

That is when I told Simon about my secret, and he became the only one on the island to know that I am a girl. I turn to leave, to give Simon his alone time and to check on Jimmy. I step out of the mat, and there's a severed pig's head. Feeling sick, I run to the beach.

I get back to the campsite, and Jimmy rushes to me. We've been split into two tribes.


	9. Kill the Beast!

You can hear the party before you see it.

"I'm chief," said Ralph. "And what about the fire? And I've got the conch—"

"You haven't got it with you," sneered Jack. "You left it behind, See, clever? And the conch doesn't count at this end of the island."

"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" Merridew's tribe was chanting.

The circle's shape changed. A thing— the beastie, as the littleuns were screaming— crawled out of the forest. It stumbled into the circle, crying out.

Merridew's tribe hadn't stopped chanting. Jimmy ran to me. He was scared. But I was listening to the beast. It sounded familiar. Then it hit me:

Simon.

I started screaming, trying to get the people off of him. But they pushed me back. Simon struggled forward, and fell over the edge of the cliff and I heard nothing other than Simon crying out in pain.

A great wind blew over the area, pushing me down. The wind took the parachute and Simon out to sea, but not before bumping his lifeless body on the reef.

*Sometime Later*

I'm on the mountain with Jimmy, crying. Simon was one of my few friends on this island. And now he's gone.

Then I saw it.

The phosphorescent colours of the sea creatures formed around Simon, making it look like he's sleeping on a bed of light. And his body floated out to sea.


	10. Robbed in the Night

Ralph approached Piggy:

"Piggy, are you the only one left?"  
"There's some littleuns."

"They don't count. No biguns?"

"Samneric. They're collecting wood. Oh… And Aaron. But he's been distant, ever since…"

Ralph whispered something.

Piggy whispered back, "What did you say?"

Ralph spoke up, "Simon." Piggy did not reply, but nodded. They sat and looked at the chief's seat, which means nothing to me. Ever since Simon, I haven't done much. I sit by the sea and converse with Jimmy and Piggy, once in a while.

They keep talking, so I get up. I can't handle all this talk about Simon. Jimmy thinks I'm getting up to come over and play a game. But I'm not. I'm going to our secret place. And Jimmy is with me, talking my ear off. I don't care anymore if Jimmy knows where it is. The first thing he points out is the pig's head.

When we come back the next day, Piggy's glasses are gone.


	11. Goodbye, Dear Piggy

Everyone, but Jimmy, is planning to go to talk to Merridew. To get him to give us Piggy's glasses back. But there isn't a big chance we'll get them back.

Ralph goes forward when we reach Castle Rock. "I'm calling an assembly." Roger tossed a stone between the twins, and Ralph repeated, "I'm calling an assembly."

Jack appeared. He and Ralph had a face off. Ralph must've noticed he was acting like a "savage," and stopped.

"Listen. We've come to say this. First, you've got to give Piggy's specs back. If he hasn't got them, he can't see. You aren't playing a game—"

The savages giggled. Ralph lost his train of thought. Piggy and I both whispered, "And the fire."

"Oh, yes. Then about the fire. I say this again. I've been saying it ever since we dropped in," he paused, pointed at the savages, then continued. "You're only hope is keeping a signal fire going as long as there's light to see. Then maybe a ship'll notice the smoke and come rescue us, and take us home. But without that smoke, we've got to wait till some ship comes by accident. We might wait years; till we're old—"

There was laughing and more arguing until Merridew's tribe grabbed Samneric. Piggy said, "Let me speak."

Holding up the conch, he continued, "I got to say this. You're acting like a crowd of kids! Which is better— to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?" The savages start to protest. but Piggy shouted over them. "Which is better— to have rules and agree, or hunting and breaking things up?"

On top of Castle Rock, Roger pulled the lever. The lever that held the boulder on top of the rock. It hit Piggy, breaking his neck and shattering the conch. He fell forty feet, and his head broke open, his brains spilling into the water.

Merridew threw his spear and it tore the flesh on Ralph's ribs. Ralph turned and ran. I followed, not once glancing back at Piggy, for I knew I wouldn't be able to continue.


	12. Too shocked to say anything but The End

Ralph ran one way, I ran another. I didn't think to look back, to look and see where he'd gone. Why should I? I knew the tribe would be going to the beach, and that's where Jimmy is. I can't leave him alone. He's only a littlun. He'll get hurt.

I sprint as far as I can. Which is halfway to the beach. I jog the rest, wanting to get to Jimmy as fast as I could. I wasn't concerned about Ralph, Piggy, myself or even Simon. All I wanted to do was get back to Jimmy. To keep him safe and tell him everything will be okay.

I get to the beach and Jimmy runs up to me. "Where's Ralph, Piggy, and the twins? Are they okay?"

"No," is the only thing I said. I was looking out towards the sea. "Hey, Jimmy? Can you see something in the sky?"

"I see smoke! What if it's a ship?!"

They were coming straight towards us. They must've seen our fire.

*A little while later*

The ship has landed. We're rejoicing. We were all afraid to believe it until a Navy Officer stepped off and asked us if we were okay. Too shocked to speak, I ran up to him and gave him a hug. Jimmy followed. He took the littluns and I onto the ship. When we got on and I was finally able to speak, he asked if there was any others on the island. I told him about Merridew's tribe, and he took me by the hand and ran with me off the ship.

We ran into Ralph first.

"Hullo," said the officer.

"Hullo," Ralph said, embarrassed by how he looked. Even under his mud-caked face, you could see that his cheeks were red. Then Merridew's tribe showed up.

Ralph still talked for all of us. He told the officer about Piggy and Simon. About how we were together at first then had a disagreement, causing us to split into two tribes. The officer led the two tribes back to the ship, and we were all excited to be going home.


End file.
